PAST AND RAYMOND NE^if^MAM AND /ALEXANDER WEBSTER Class ^^AAH. ? ^' (^ 1 SOMERSET HOUSE PAST AND PRESENT BOOKS ON OLD LONDON THE OLD BAILEY AND NEWGATE. By Charles Gordon. With about loo Illustrations and a Frontispiece. Medium 8vo, cloth, 21s. net. OLD TIME ALDWYCH, KINGSWAY, AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. By Charles Gordon. Fully Illustrated and with Map. Medium 8vo, cloth, 21s. net. LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN. SOMERSET HOUSE PAST AND PRESENT BY ', • RAYMOND, NEEDHAM ALEXANDER WEBSTER NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET h'^J' ^■% To E. E. STOODLEY, Esq. {Ail rights reserved.') Contents PREFACE . . . . . . '9 THE DUKE OF SOMERSET: BIOGRAPHICAL . . , 1 3 CHAPTER I THE FOUNDATION . . . . . '3^ CHAPTER II SOMERSET HOUSE UNDER THE TUDORS . . . 53 CHAPTER III SOMERSET HOUSE UNDER THE STUARTS : JAMES I. . -65 CHAPTER III {continued) SOMERSET HOUSE UNDER THE STUARTS : CHARLES I. . 89 CHAPTER III {continued) SOMERSET HOUSE UNDER THE STUARTS : CHARLES II. . -139 CHAPTER IV OLD SOMERSET HOUSE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . 1 68 5 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS CHAPTER V THE NEW BUILDING ..... PAGE CHAPTER VI ITS TENANTS, I780-185O 214 CHAPTER VII THE NATIONAL BEEHIVE 245 CHAPTER VIII KING S COLLEGE . 265 APPENDIX I. THE GREAT SALE 283 APPENDIX II. DENMARK HOUSE IN THE STRAND : LIST OF RESIDENTS ...... 309 List of Illustrations SOMERSET HOUSE {ch'Ca 1650). VIEW TOWARDS WEST- MINSTER ..... After the painting in the Dulwich Gallery. THE PROTECTOR SOMERSET .... From an engraving by H. Meyer after the picture at Longleat. THE STRAND IN I 543 .... From the drawing by A. van dcr Wyngaerde. THE STRAND FRONT ..... From the Original Collection of Drawings, by John Thorpe, pre- served in the Soane Museum. THE STRAND IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH . From the drawing by Ralph Agas. CONFERENCE OF ENGLISH AND SPANISH PLENIPOTENTIARIES AT SOMERSET HOUSE IN 1 604 From tlie picture in the Natiotial Portrait Gallery, by Marc Ghceraedts. Frontispiece ■ To face page 13 35 • 54- 65 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ANNE OF DENMARK .... To face page 74 From the picture in the National Portrait Gallery by Paul van Somcr. INIGO JONES ....... So From the picture in the National Porfraii Gallery, copied, probably by Henry Stone, from the original by Vandyck. THE STRAND FRONT .... „ 83 From an engraving by W. M. Felloivs, after the print by W. Moss, 1777. THE QUADRANGLE . . . . . ,, 85 From an engraving by W. M. Fellows, after the print by W. Moss, 1777. HENRIETTA MARIA . . . . ,,89 From an old copy in the National Poiirait Gallery of the original painting by Vandyck. CHANCEL SCREEN . . . . . „ III From a print in the British Muscnm, issued by Isaac Ware, 1757. REREDOS . . . . . . ,, 113 From a print in the British Muscnm, issued by Isaac Ware, 1757. TOMBSTONES . . . . . . „ II7 Taken from the Chapel of old Somerset House, and built into the walls of a passage under the quadrangle of the present building. OLIVER CROMWELL LYING IN STATE AT SOMERSET HOUSE „ I3I DESIGN FOR RIVER FRONT, BY INIGO JONES . . ,, 1 43 (Marked "Not taken.") DESIGN BY INIGO JONES (aS EXECUTED) . . „ 1 44 DESIGN BY INIGO JONES, EMBRACING THE WHOLE RIVER FRONT „ I46 CATHERINE OF BRAGANZA . . . . ,, 149 From a painting by Dirk Stoop in the National Portrait Gallery. FRANCES TERESA, DUCHESS OF RICHMOND . . „ 154 From the painting by Sir Peter Lcly, at Hampton Court. strand front (with procession of scald miserable masons), 1742 . . . . . „ 168 view of river front, by knyff, i72o . . „ i7o perspective view of the royal garden of somerset, 1753 ,, 173 maria, countess of coventry . * . „ 1 77 From a painting by Francis Cotes. A MASQUERADE . . . . . „ I8I Front an engraving attributed to Hogarth. THE RIVER FRONT . . . . „ 1 84 From ilie engraving by B. Cole. OLD SOMERSET HOUSE AND THE CHURCH OF ST. MARY LE STRAND . . . . . . „ 187 SIR WILLIAM CHAMBERS . . . . „ I90 From the painting by Sir Joslnia Reynolds. PERSPECTIVE OF STRAND FRONT . . . „ 1 93 PERSPECTIVE OF THE TERRACE . . . „ 1 95 To face page 197 >» 199 51 200 204 206 n 209 n 212 55 215 55 219 55 220 55 222 55 224 226 8 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS THE LAST OF THE OLD PALACE BRONZE GROUP IN THE QUADRANGLE THE QUADRANGLE FROM THE VESTIBULE SCULPTURE IN COURTYARD THE QUADRANGLE : NORTH SIDE VIEW TOWARDS THE EAST THE VESTIBULE ..... PLAN OF THE WORK EXECUTED BY SIR WM. CHAMBERS THE HALL OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY STUDENTS AT WORK IN THE ANTIQUE ACADEMY NATURE ...... Painlcd by G. B. Cipriani. CEILING OF THE COUNCIL CHAMBER THE ROYAL ACADEMY EXHIBITION OF IjSj From the drawing by H. Rambcrg. PORTRAITS OF REYNOLDS, CHAMBERS, AND JOSEPH WILTON „ 23 I By John Francis Rigaud, R.A. (National Portrait Gallery). MEETING OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY . . . „ 235 MEETING OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES . . „ 239 IN THE NAVY MUSEUM . . . . „ 24 1 GROUND PLAN OF THE NEW WING . . . „ 245 From a drawing by Mr. Harold Hillyer VIEW OF WELLINGTON STREET IN 1 832 . . „ 247 Showing rear of the Old Admiralty Residences. THE NEW WING : FRONT TOWARDS WELLINGTON STREET . „ . 248 THE RIVER FRONT, AS COMPLETED BY THE ERECTION OF king's COLLEGE . . . . 55 259 king's COLLEGE ...... 265 RIVER FRONT FROM EAST (1806), SHOWING SITE OF king's COLLEGE .... 55 27O GROUND FLOOR PLAN ...... 272 From a drawing by Mr. Harold Hillyer. THE CHAPEL, king's COLLEGE ... „ 277 PLAN OF DENMARK HOUSE, I706 (nO. i) . . „ 3O9 PLAN OF DENMARK HOUSE, I706 (nO. 2) . . „ 3I3 Preface ALTHOUGH this work was primarily designed to gather into compact form the records of notable events and curious anecdotes which preserve what may be known of the story of Somerset House, research has re- vealed the existence of much cognate matter interesting to the student antiquary and here included in the hope that it may lighten a by-path of the Metropolitan topography. Unhappily for the perfect continuity of the narrative the data on which it must rest are widely scattered in the literature of three centuries. Here and there in places the least likely valuable information comes to light, so that at no point would it be wise to assert that oblivion has supervened. The most complete account of Somerset's palace hitherto existing was that compiled by Samuel Pegge, F.S.A., and printed as Part IV. of his Curalia in 1806. This work describes with the utmost care all the buildings pulled down by the Duke both in the Strand and in other parts of London, and furnishes a vindication of his conduct except as regards the irreverent removal of human remains from Pardon Churchyard and the Charnel House of St. Paul's. In the Home Counties Magazine for January, 1899, a brief history was given from the pen of the late Mr. Heaton Jacob. But in matters of more popular interest the information supplied by these authorities is extremely meagre. Much that is new has been discovered, 10 PREFACE and facts bearing upon Pegge's thesis have thrown a clearer light upon Somerset's early connection with the site. Of the original fabric of the palace nothing but a rough sketch can be pieced together, the alterations and extensions carried out by Inigo Jones during the first decade of the seventeenth century being barely mentioned by contemporary topographers, and but cursorily noticed in summary bills of costs preserved at the Public Record Office. Fortunately, however, we find the help of numerous engraved pictures illustrating the building at every period since its foundation, from Van den Wyngaerde's drawing and the crude outline of Ralph Agas's map to the highly finished aquatints of Malton's Picturesque Tour through London and Westminster . In fact the only adequate descrip- tion of the building is the pictorial one. Excepting Mr. A. F. Pollard's scholarly volume on England under Protector Somerset^ which is not exclusively biographical, no separate life of Somerset exists, although the materials for such a work are copious. The Protector occupies an important place in English history and the full biography will no doubt one day be forthcoming ; but for the present a considerable space in this volume is devoted to recapitulating the main phases of his career as showing amid what influences the first foundations of Somerset House were laid. At various periods in the seventeenth century the palace becomes so intimately involved with the current movements in politics as to necessitate excursions into the broader fields of English History. Particularly in connection with the Catholic revival when the activities of Henrietta Maria's priests provoked Parliamentary recriminations and fanned the Revolution into flame, a glance at the political arena could not rightly be avoided. Indeed sufficient prominence has not hitherto been given to the part played by the Catholics of Somerset House PREFACE 11 in aggravating the irritant effects of Charles's attitude towards his Parliament, Most misguided of all that monarch's courses was that which brought his own integrity as a Protestant under suspicion and permitted the Queen's household to become a mere outpost of the Swiss Guard. In another respect, moreover, the time of Charles I. is significant. It embraces the accumulation and begins the dispersal of the most notable collection of artistic treasures ever possessed by a single individual. With a splendid enthusiasm and genuine discrimination this monarch provided a rich inheritance for the English people, little dreaming that at his death it would be scattered abroad to raise funds for his enemies. The great interest attaching to the sale of Charles's belongings necessitated the introduction of particulars too numerous and diverse to be included in the general history of Somerset House, and they have accordingly been transferred to an appendix. With regard to the modern building no attempt has been made to describe in detail the numerous departments and institutions for which at one time or another it has provided accommodation. From the many plans and other documents preserved at the Soane Museum an impression may be obtained of the intricate nature of Sir William Chambers's task and of the size and importance of offices long since obsolete. The Hawkers and Pedlars Ofhce, the Lottery Office, the Hackney Coach Office, the Salt Tax Office, the Pipe Office, and the offices of the Auditor of Imprests and the King's Bargemaster — all are entirely done away or absorbed in larger establishments. Changes have followed one another so rapidly that it has not been practicable, even had it seemed advisable, to give more than a bare outline of their progress. Within the memory of some now living, Somerset House included a con- siderable residential population, the chief officers of the 12 PREFACE executive as well as the porters and caretakers of the various offices being required to live on the premises. But as the small departments gave place to large ones it became expedient to utilise the residential quarters for offices and to connect the separate parts of the building by piercing the divisional walls. In this way much damage has been wrought upon the interior, and the resultant plan is far from convenient. To avoid the repetition of particulars of a transitory and dry-as-dust nature the activities now centred in Somerset House have been viewed historically and the facts and statistics available in numerous works of reference issued year by year intentionally excluded. Thanks are due to Mr. Frederick H. Duffield for valuable assistance always readily accorded. To face page 13. The Protector Somerset. From an engraving by H. Meyer after the picture at LongJeat. THE DUKE OF SOMERSET: BIOGRAPHICAL LATE in the summer of 1535 King Henry VIII. with a numerous retinue came to visit Sir John Seymour at Wulf Hall, near Savernake, in Wiltshire. Ostensibly the visit was one of courtesy to an aged and trusty subject, and nothing remains to distinguish it from many another of Henry's excursions. But in the retrospect of history great events indeed arrive through that occasion ; for not o.ily does it mark the ascendency of Jane Seymour at Court and the miserable end of Anne Boleyn, but also it sets the seal of royal favour upon Edward, Jane Seymour's brother, who, as the Lord Protector Somerset, was fated to win prominence in the annals of England. Turning back upon that time we encounter one of the great climacterics of our race. Society is in a state of upheaval, and the long period of religious and political regeneration heralded by the invention of printing, begun definitely in the work of Colet and Erasmus, strengthened, developed, and formulated by the genius of Sir Thomas More, is already bearing fruit. But though the trend of events is unmistakably beneficent, the determining forces seem ungovernable and dangerous. The temper of the King from whom the champions of the New Learning had at first derived encouragement, passed, under the in- fluence of Cromwell, to a phase of despotism which might well have been regarded as hostile. In spite of his 13 14 SOMERSET HOUSE tyrannical rule, however, Henry remained at heart a reformer, and the changes which were brought about by the aim of Cromwell in the direction of autocracy, were, in effect, the very ends which Colet, Erasmus, and More had sought to achieve by the more gradual methods of educa- tion. The Act of Supremacy had at last disposed of the power of the Church. The reins of every department of the State were held in Cromwell's inflexible grip. Such monasteries as had not already yielded up their riches were now quickly suppressed, and the new nobility whom Henry had created to fortify himself against the tradi- tions upheld by the old, were liberally endowed with the spoils. Among this body of the nouveaux riches was Edward Seymour. He had been born, probably at Wulf Hall, about the year 1506, was in 15 14 a page of honour at the marriage of Mary Tudor (Henry's sister) with Louis XII. of France, and, joining the army of the Duke of Suffolk, was present at the capture in 1523 of the French towns of Bray, Roye, and Montdidier. At the close of this campaign he received knighthood and soon afterwards appeared at Court as an esquire of the King's household. In 1527 he accompanied Wolsey in an embassy to the King of France ; and in the years following was enriched by the gift of numerous lands in the North and West. On the 12th of September, 1530, he was appointed an esquire of the King's body, and thenceforward appears to have enjoyed the privilege of a close friendship with Henry himself. His sister, Jane Seymour, who had been maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon, was retained in that capacity at the Court of Anne Boleyn ; and there can be little doubt that when Henry's attentions were transferred to Jane, the way was made smooth by her ambitious brother. Be this as it may, the visit of Henry to Wulf Hall in 1535 seems to have decided him to make THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 15 Jane Seymour his queen, for within a few months she was installed in the palace at Greenwich in apartments which communicated, through a private passage, with those of the King. Anne Boleyn was tried and condemned on the 15th of May, 1536 ; she was beheaded on the 19th; and on the 30th, Henry quietly married his new love. A week later Edward Seymour became Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, in Somerset, and received a grant of extensive manors in Wiltshire. On October 15th of the same year he carried the Princess Elizabeth (afterwards Queen) at the christen- ing of the boy Edward who had been born of his sister's union with the King ; and three days afterwards was created Earl of Hertford. The death of Queen Jane on October 24th was naturally a blow to Hertford's influence. In the year following he is described as a man " young and wise but of small power." Nevertheless he retained the King's friendship, and in 1539 was entrusted with the defence and fortification of Calais and Guisnes. On his return to England after the success- ful completion of this task, Henry bestowed upon him " Chester Place outside Temple Bar, London^'' as a residence, and thus determined the site of the future Somerset House. Hertford was now despatched to meet Anne of Cleves, the lady by whose marriage with the King, Cromwell designed to achieve a policy which might have averted the Thirty Years' War. On reaching London again he wrote to Cromwell that, since the birth of Prince Edward, nothing had pleased him so much as this new marriage of the King. But on the subject of Anne of Cleves, Cromwell appeared in open defiance of Henry's desires ; Anne was distasteful to him, and the outburst of his wrath left Cromwell an easy victim to his innumerable enemies. According to the Spanish Chronicle, Cromwell was 16 SOMERSET HOUSE sacrificed at the instigation of Hertford, who now took place in the front rank of the King's advisers. The Duke of Norfolk, his most powerful rival, was led to seek his friendship through a marriage between his daughter, the Duchess of Richmond, and Hertford's brother, Thomas Seymour. But the step did not permanently influence their relations. In 1541, Hertford was appointed a Knight of the Garter, and during Henry's progress in the North had the chief management of affairs in London. Late in the same year he was associated with Archbishop Cranmer in the trial and condemnation of Catherine Howard, niece of the Duke of Norfolk, and Henry's fifth wife. In March, 1544, he was dispatched to proclaim Henry guardian of the infant Queen of Scots and protector of the realm, in defiance both of the temper of the Scottish people and of their alliance with France. On the 3rd of May he landed at Leith with an army of ten thousand men. The keys of the capital were at once proffered on condition that all citizens who so desired might be allowed to leave with their effects ; but the Earl demanded an unconditional surrender, announcing that he had been sent to punish the Scots " for their detestable falsehood, and to declare and show the force of his Highness's sword to all such as would resist him." The inhabitants became defiant ; and on the following day the Canongate was blown down and the city pillaged. Hertford returned to Berwick laden with spoil, having succeeded only in exasperating the Scots and strengthening their alliance with the French. Indeed he had scarcely returned to London, when his attention was diverted to Boulogne, where a French army, under Marshal de Biez, had laid siege to the English fortificar tions. Though the force at Hertford's disposal was less than half the number in the opposing ranks, he sallied out before dawn on the 6th of February, 1545, at the head of THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 17 four thousand men, and took the enemy by surprise. A panic seized them, and they fled in disorder, the whole of their stores, ammunition, and artillery falling into the hands of the English. This exploit secured Boulogne for a time, and Hertford was now occupied in revenging the defeat which the Scottish army had inflicted on the English at Ancrum Muir ; but his operations were confined to a border foray, and before the close of 1545 he was back in London in attendance at the Council. In April, 1546, he was again commissioned Lieutenant-General of the army in France, and empowered to make overtures of peace. A treaty was concluded on the 7th of June, and in October Hertford returned to England, and remained in attendance at Court and Council till Henry's death. The few months which intervened before that event witnessed a momentous struggle for power between the opposing parties in the State. Norfolk, the representative of the older nobility, came at last face to face with Hertford, round whom the men of the " new blood " naturally gathered. As uncle of the young Prince Edward, Hertford could not fail to play a leading part in the coming reign, and in that confidence the Russells, the Cavendishes, the Wriothesleys, and the Fitzwilliams were eager to support him. Unlike the Howards, who boasted their Plantagenet descent, this group of the new nobility had no historical hold upon the country ; they owed their distinction mainly to the royal caprice and their wealth to the spoliation of the monasteries ; they were pledged to the Reformation, and what- ever motives underlay their actions the efl^ect of their policy was to bring the English Church into line with the reformed Churches of the Continent. Norfolk, though sympathising with the purification of ecclesiastical institutions, leaned towards Rome, and it was abundantly clear that the party 2 18 SOMERSET HOUSE which became paramount at this critical time would thence- forth possess an enormous advantage. The rival factions met with bitter words. " If God should call the King to His mercy," exclaimed Surrey, Norfolk's son, *' who were so meet to govern the Prince as my lord, my father ? " " Rather than that should be," came the retort of one of Hertford's adherents, " I would abide the adventure to thrust a dagger in you." But the issue was more simply decided by Henry himself. True to the work he had begun, he resisted the pretensions of the Papacy in an offer to unite in a " League Christian " with the Lutheran Princes of North Germany, and consented to Cranmer's proposal to change the Mass into a Com- munion Service. Surrey's boast of his royal blood, the Duke's quartering of the royal arms to distinguish his Plantagenet descent, and certain covert interviews with the French Ambassador, were cleverly used by the enemies of the Howards to rouse Henry's fears of the danger which might beset the throne of his son. Norfolk was attainted of treason, and flung into the Tower, while Surrey was tried and sent to the block. Hertford was hardly aware of his success before Henry's death at Westminster on the 28th of January, 1547, left him pre- eminent. He was present to receive the King's last commands, and at once took possession of the will. Quickly resolving to set aside its provisions as regards the Council of Regency appointed to rule during Edward's minority, he boldly essayed a coup d'etat. He forbade the news of Henry's death to be published, and hurried down to Hatfield to secure the person of the young King. This done, the tidings went abroad, and on Monday, the 31st of January, he arrived with Edward at the Tower of London. At the conference then held he was proposed as Pro- tector, and though the Council was divided, a daring THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 19 amendment of Henry's will excluding Bishop Gardiner from its debates, enabled the proposal to be carried, and Hertford assumed " the name and title of Protector of all the realms and domains of the King's Majesty and governor of his most royal person." But there was this provision, that the Protector must act only " with the advice and consent of the rest of the executors." On February 2nd Hertford took office as High Steward of England for Edward's coronation ; on the loth he became Treasurer of the Exchequer and Earl Marshal. Five days later he was created Baron Seymour of Hache, and, on the i6th, Duke of Somerset. A new patent drawn out in the boy-King's name, empowering his uncle to act without consent of his fellow-executors, and " to do anything which a governor of the King's person or Protector of the realm ought to do," was issued on the 12th of March, and Somerset became supreme in the kingdom, A form of prayer used in churches spoke of him as " caused by Providence to rule," and in addressing the King of France he boldly called him " brother." Thus by intrigue and self-assertion a country gentleman, raised to high rank at Court by the accident of his sister's queenship, had made himself the first Protestant ruler of England. But daring as he had been, Somerset was compelled to fortify his position by measures which marked the retreat of the Crown from the absolutism of Henry. The statute which had given to royal proclamations the force of law was now repealed, and several of the new felonies and treasons which Cromwell had created and used so mercilessly, were struck out. These measures were undoubtedly popular ; but against the attacks of the conservative party, which the rise of Somerset had temporarily overthrown, it was necessary to secure the support of Protestantism. The Protector himself was a pronounced Calvinist, in frequent communication 20 SOMERSET HOUSE with the Genevan reformer. And there is no other account to be given of the gradual changes which culminated in the second Prayer Book of 1552, than that in religious affairs he exercised the same arbitrary sway as the late King had brought to bear upon Parliament when the Act of Six Articles was passed in 1539. He quietly encouraged the publication of books of extreme Pro- testant views, and himself penned a preface for the new Communion Office of 1548, hinting plainly at reforms which were soon to follow. By an order of the 6th of February, 1547, all bishops were compelled to exercise their offices durante bene-placito^ and their position as mere State officials was further emphasised by an order for their appointment only under letters patent. An ecclesiastical visitation followed for the removal of pictures and images, the assertion of royal supremacy, and the enforcement of the use of the English tongue in all Church services. A book of homilies was issued, and a formal statute gave priests the right to marry. A resolution of Convocation, confirmed by Parliament, ordered that the sacrament of Holy Communion should be administered in both kinds. According to a contemporary writer, " the Archbishop of Canterbury did this year eat meat openly in Lent in the hall of Lambeth, the like of which was never seen since England was a Christian country." The Book of Common Prayer replaced the Missal and Breviary, and the last hold of Rome upon the English Church seemed to have been finally shaken off. So much does the Reformation owe to the Duke of Somerset. While these reforms were successfully inaugurated at home, the Protector dreamed of a still wider triumph for the Protestant cause abroad. It was given out that on his death-bed Henry had impressed upon the Council the need of a closer union with Scotland through the marriage of its queen with the young Prince Edward ; and Somerset, THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 21 against the counsel of his colleagues, now revived Edward I.'s claim to feudal suzerainty over Scotland, and prepared to secure his end by a renewal of the Border warfare. This aroused the jealousy of France, and a fleet appeared off the Scottish coast. Somerset accepted the challenge, and taking to the field in person, marched upon Edinburgh in command of 18,000 men. He found the Scots en- camped behind the Esk at a spot known as Pinkie Cleugh, on the slopes of Musselburgh six miles east of the capital, and after a severe engagement drove them headlong in defeat. Ten thousand Scots are said to have fallen in the rout. Although victorious, Somerset was compelled by famine to fall back from the wasted country ; and the Scots in despair turned as of old to France, securing protection against England by a consent to Mary Stuart's marriage with the Dauphin. Thus not only was the Tudor policy of union with Scotland effectually baulked, but Scotland had fallen under the direct influence of France, and now in the North as well as in the South, England could be made to feel the pressure of the French king. Nevertheless, on his return from the campaign Somerset was received with fresh marks of honour. He declined to enter London in triumph, but accepted a special seat in the House of Lords above the other peers, and the designation " Edward, by the grace of God, Duke of Somerset, etc." But his policy had not been altogether successful at home. Though the religious changes he was forcing on the land were carried through with the determination if not with the vigour of Cromwell, though he was enabled by confiscating the revenues of the few remaining chantries and religious guilds to buy the assent of noble and landowner, he could not buy off the general aversion of the country people. These rejected the new law and called for the maintenance 22 SOMERSET HOUSE of the system of Henry VIII. During 1549 the men of Devonshire, in open revolt, demanded the restoration of the Mass and the Six Articles, as well as a partial re- estabhshment of the suppressed abbeys. Enclosures and evictions were carried out in all quarters by the nobles, and the Church lands, which had hitherto been underlet, were now raised to their full value by the rapacity of their lay owners. The general distress was deepened by a per- sistent debasing of the coinage, which Somerset was unable to check. Twenty thousand men under the leadership of Robert Kett gathered round an " Oak of Reformation " at Norwich, and, repulsing the Royal troops, raised a cry for the removal of evil counsellors, a restitution of enclosures, and redress for the grievances of the poor. By the energy of the Earl of Warwick, this revolt was speedily reduced in bloodshed, and a similar rising in the Western counties was put down by Lord Russell ; but not before a fatal blow had been struck against Somerset's power. Already this power had been weakened by strife within his own family. His brother Thomas, created Lord Seymour, raised to the post of Lord High Admiral, and glutted with lands and honours, had yet such greed of power as to envy the Protector. He secretly married Queen Catherine Parr, hoping to attain a greater influence, and on her death attempted a union with the Princess Elizabeth. Whilst the Protector was absent in Scotland he openly decried the administration and utilised every opportunity to draw the King's affection to himself. At first Somerset en- deavoured to dissuade him from his reckless courses, but urged to extremes by the Earl of Warwick, he rejected this counsel with contumely, and the Protector, finding his own position seriously imperilled, committed his brother to the Tower. According to the Privy Council register, he ** desired for natural pity's sake licence at the passing of the THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 23 bill of attainder to be away," and only gave his assent to the measure with great reluctance. Lord Seymour paid the penalty of his rashness, but his execution brought upon Somerset the odium of the populace. His success in dealing with the rebellion in Norfolk encouraged Warwick also to begin an intrigue against the Protector. He found a ready accomplice in Wriothesley (Earl of Southampton), whom Somerset had ejected from the Chancellorship. At the same time the eagerness with which Somerset enriched himself out of the spoils of ecclesiastical institutions counted heavily against him, and the Council became incensed by his arbitrary acts in making a stamp of the King's signature and instituting a court of requests in his own house at the Strand. The continued failure of his policy both at home and abroad gave Warwick the opportunity he needed. In September, 1549, he appeared with two hundred captains who had served in suppressing the rebellions and demanded extra pay for their services. They were met by a direct refusal. Secret meetings were now held at the houses of the disaffected councillors, and Somerset, hearing of them, issued a leaflet inciting the people to rise in his defence and that of their king. It took the form of an anonymous address, ex- plaining the base motives of his enemies and exhorting the people to move in his favour. "We the poore comens," it concluded, " being injuried by the extorciouse gentylmen, had our pardon this yere by the goodnesse of the Lorde Protector, for whom let us fyght, for he lovith all just and true gentylmen which do no extorcion and also us the poore commynaltie of Englande." The fact that 10,000 men responded to this call is sufficient to show that, in despite of everything alleged against him, and notwith- standing the insurrection in opposition to his rule, Somerset still held the affection of a considerable proportion of the people of London. But though he had rallied his supporters, 24 SOMERSET HOUSE his cause was beyond hope. The coils of his enemies were tightening around him, and when, on the 6th of October, he despatched Sir WilUam Petre from Hampton Court to London to inquire the meaning of the Council's proceedings, Warwick's adherents were discovered in session at Ely House, where they had drawn up an indictment of the Protector's rule. To this indictment the City gave its assent, and various nobles with their adherents were summoned to London by order of the Council. The Tower was secured and 15,000 men gathered to support Warwick's action. Indeed, for the moment, the very people on whom Somerset might once have relied seemed banded against him. On the 1 2th of October he was arrested at Windsor, whither he had moved with the King, and two days later he was committed to the Tower. In January, 1550, an account of the proceedings taken against him was laid before Parliament, the various charges being set forth in twenty-nine articles. He at once made a full confession and threw himself on the mercy of the Council. The sentence which followed deposed him from the Protectorate, relieved him of all his offices, and deprived him of lands to the value of ^2,000. He was, however, released from the Tower, and granted a full pardon on the 1 8 th of February. Notwithstanding the anxiety of his position, the months of his confinement had not been passed in idleness. He found solace in the perusal of devotional books, such as Spyrytuall and most Precyouse Pearle, a German work, which he read in the manuscript translation of Miles Coverdale. For this book, indeed, he wrote the English preface, and he is supposed also to have translated and published a letter he received from Calvin ; but of this no copy can now be traced. Within three months of his release he had recovered much of his former eminence. His lands were restored, he THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 25 took precedence of all other members of the Council, and on the 3rd of June, as if to show the completeness of the reconciliation, his daughter Anne was married to Viscount Lisle, Lord Warwick's eldest son. The reunion, however, was only momentary, for although Somerset's influence con- tinued to revive, and a strong party favoured the proposal to elevate him again to the Protectorate, the power and ambition of his rival Warwick effectually held him in check. Popular feeling ran high in his favour, and he even seems to have meditated a fresh coup d'etat in the seizure of Warwick, Northampton, and Pembroke, who for their part were resolved on his destruction. In September, 1551, he was prevented by sickness from attending the Council, and it is probable that this period of his inactivity enabled his enemies to mature their plans. On the 4th of October he appeared once more at the Council, and on the same day Warwick became Duke of Northumberland. About this time Sir Thomas Palmer disclosed a plot which he alleged had been formed in April by Somerset, Arundel, Paget, and himself with the object of raising the country and murdering Warwick. An inquiry was at once instituted, ostensibly with the object of determining Somerset's Indebtedness to the King, but its real purpose became apparent when he was suddenly arrested and conveyed to the Tower. Some days later the Council communicated to the City of London the baseless story that he had plotted to destroy the City and to seize the Tower and the Isle of Wight. He was also accused of endeavouring to secure for himself and his heirs the succession to the Crown. Several weeks elapsed while the evidence was being prepared against him. There can be little doubt he had meditated supplanting Northumberland, but no evidence exists to show that the plot would have involved that nobleman's death. And apart from the im- probabilities of Palmer's story, we have the direct avowal of Renard that both Northumberland and Palmer confessed 26 SOMERSET HOUSE before death that the case against Somerset had been fabricated. I On Tuesday, the ist of December, 1551, at 5 a.m., with a great number of " bills, halberds, and pole axes attending him," Somerset was conveyed by water from the Tower to Westminster Hall, there to be tried by his Peers. The first charge — one of treason — broke down, but a second charge of felony was forthwith preferred, and he was condemned to be executed. The populace, " supposing he had been clearly quitt, when they see the axe of the Tower put down made such a shryke and castinge up of caps that it was heard into the Long Acre beyonde Charinge Crosse," and on his journey back to the Tower they " cried ' God save him ' all the way as he went." - But Somerset's popularity among the people of London could not save him. Warwick and his confederates knew too well the danger to their own cause of granting him a second respite. Accordingly, on the 22nd of January, 1552, between 8 and 9 a.m., the last penalty was exacted. To prevent a tumult, orders had been given that all people should remain indoors till 10 a.m. But " by seven o'clock Tower Hill was covered with a great multitude repairing from all parts of the citie as well as out of the suburbs." Standing under guard before the block, Somerset spoke quietly to the crowd around him a word of farewell. " Masters and good fellows," he said, " I am come hither for to die." 3 He rejoiced in the work he had been able to do in the cause of religion, and urged all men to follow the same cause. While he was yet speaking Sir Anthony Browne pressed through the crowd on horseback. A cry of " Pardon ! " was raised ; but Somerset, with cap in hand, ' Froude, v. 36 n. ^ Wriothesley, ii. 63. 3 Sir H. Ellis, Original Letters^ series ii. THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 27 waved the people to come together, saying, *' There is no such thing, good people, there is no such thing ; it is the ordinance of God thus for to die, wherewith we must be content ; and I pray you now let us pray together for the King's majesty, to whose Grace I have always been a faithful, true, and most loving subject." Then he laid his head upon the block, and when the axe had done its work those nearest the scaffold pressed forward to dip their handkerchiefs in his blood. His remains were buried in St. Peter's Chapel in the Tower, side by side with those of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, and in the same grave with those of his turbulent brother. Lord Seymour of Sudeley. Much obloquy has gathered upon the name of Protector Somerset. Numerous writers since his day have failed to see that his faults were largely the faults of the age in which he lived. They tell us he was rapacious ; but if we reflect that when the Church disgorged her accumulated wealth one and all of the more powerful laymen scrambled to become rich upon the spoils, the fault in Somerset is not unpardonable. Sir John Fenn observes in a letter to Mr. Granger, '' I have been lately looking into all such of our histories of England and lives of great men as I could procure, to see what character upon the whole view of them might fairly be affixed to Protector Somerset. The result is I do not think they have done him justice. Most, indeed, allow him many good qualities ; but there comes a counter- balance of various charges, of extravagance and maladmini- stration, warranted indeed by the accusations of his enemies ; but, I believe, little deserved by the duke." Placed as he was in a position of supreme power, the wonder is not that Somerset laid hold of so much, but that he appropriated so little. Reared in the school of Protestantism, taught by the very force of habit to abolish the emblems of ritualism and Rome, it is not unlikely that his vandalism in destroying 28 SOMERSET HOUSE ecclesiastical edifices to find stone for his own palace was deliberate and conscientious, and not, as is more often held, wanton and sacrilegious. He occupies an important place in English history. He is the first of our Protestant rulers ; he did more than any other man to give practical effect to the religious and political revolution his age had inaugurated. The strength of his convictions and the purity of his life fitted him admirably in the role of reformer. It is largely to his influence that we owe the splendid bequest of the English Prayer Book, and but for the firm stand he made against the Catholic reaction which overtook the Continental nations, Protestantism might not have flourished as it did. Under his rule England became the common refuge of persecuted reformers, and Lutheranism, which was being rigorously suppressed in its own home, became trium- phant here. Fugitives from every country — Germans, Italians, French, Poles, and Swiss — flocked into England ; and when the persecution made itself felt in the Low Countries, Walloons were welcomed at London and Can- terbury, and allowed to set up their churches. In his conception of a union between England and Scotland, in his constant solicitude for the poorer classes of the com- munity, and in his endeavour to mitigate the harshness of Cromwell's laws, Somerset has demonstrated for himself a sincere and exalted purpose. His removal of the restric- tions which weighed upon the Press, and his unwillingness to persecute for doctrinal heresies, anticipated the age by more than a century. But he was too little of an oppor- tunist to be successful as a ruler, and failed in the complete achievement of his objects mainly through a want of patience, a hatred of compromise, and a consistent undervaluing of the forces opposed to him. Unquestionably he was ambitious. His usurpation of the royal prerogative proved him capable of a resolute audacity. But in all that he did he was inno- THE DUKE OF SOMERSET 29 cent of ignoble motives, and aimed at ends he judged to be beneficent. The charm of his personality secured him the affection of many whose schemes he opposed ; political jealousies were forgotten in his genial companionship ; and although by his death Northumberland gained a momentary triumph, the loss to England was great and irreparable. CHAPTER I THE FOUN D ATIO N AT the beginning of his Protectorate the Duke of Somerset occupied Chester Place outside Temple Bar — a modest establishment bestowed upon him in 1539 for services rendered in connection with the fortification of Calais and Guisnes.^ Doubtless this residence had hitherto proved adequate to his simple needs, but to accommodate the larger household which the dignity of his new position demanded was beyond its capacity, and in appointments suitable for the ceremonial of a Court it must have been hopelessly deficient. One point alone was in its favour. It occupied an unrivalled position on the road between Westminster and the City, and in choosing a site for the new palace he determined to build, Somerset can have had little hesitation in selecting the immediate vicinity of Chester Place. The Strand had lately been paved under an Act of Parliament,^ and was now a safe and convenient thorough- fare, giving access to several palaces besides Somerset's, " It is not an ill compliment to the nobility of those times that so many of them had their houses by Thames ' 31 Hen. VIII. cap. 18 granted to the Earl of Hertford "all that capital messuage commonly called Chester Place lying and being in the parish of our blessed Lady of Strand without the bars of the Temple in London in the county of Middlesex with gardens, orchard, court and other buildings to the said messuage appertaining and belonging," evidently a considerable property. ^ 24 Hen. VIII. cap. 1 1. 31 32 SOMERSET HOUSE side from the Temple to Whitehall." ^ Indeed, the Strand became a street of palaces, those of York, Durham, Exeter, Savoy, and Arundel being notably magnificent. Each had a special landing-place upon the Thames, which provided all classes of society with a highway for excursions of business and pleasure. Traffic between the Court and the City was carried on by means of wherries from Whitehall to Blackfriars or London Bridge. The King passed up or down stream in a State barge, attended by the barges of his nobles ; and daily the river presented a gay scene. In relation to the London of those days the Strand was the Mayfair or Belgravia, the residential quarter of the nobility ; and even so late as the beginning of last century the ruined palace of Savoy still stood peacefully by the Thames, suggesting much more the picturesque decay now exhibited in the crumbling piles of rural monasteries than the decrepit splendours of a royal palace in the heart of a great city. Some uncertainty exists as to the year in which the work of erecting the Lord Protector's palace was begun. But even if the building had not been in contemplation prior to Henry VIII. 's death in January, 1547, necessity must have compelled a definite move in the matter very soon afterwards. Somerset's patent as Lord Protector was granted on the 12th of March, 1547, and in the follow- ing July his stipend was fixed at 8,000 marks (about ^25,000 in the currency of to-day). This income, added to the wealth he already possessed through the bounty of Henry VIII., must have enabled him to lavish a large sum upon any project which occupied his mind ; and there can be little doubt that the construction of a new palace was decided upon and undertaken immediately. I'he grandeur of Hampton Court, which Cardinal Wolsey designed for himself until the threatening disfavour of Henry drove ' Strype, Stomas Survey, edition 1755. THE FOUNDATION 33 him, in 1526, to relinquish it as a peace-ofFering, was doubtless in the Protector's mind as a thing to be sur- passed ; for even Wolsey had never attained to the singular glory which fell upon Somerset at Henry's death. It is not surprising, therefore, that the edifice which he planned should have excited so much interest among his con- temporaries, or that when fallen from power his foes should have fixed upon him the charge of " his ambition and seeking of his own glory as appeared by his building of most sump- tuous and costly buildings, and specially in the time of the King's wars, and the King's soldiers unpaid." To make room for this new palace the Protector demolished the buildings immediately surrounding his residence at the Strand. These are particularised in Stow's Survey of London and Westminster.^ After describing Arundel House, formerly Bath's Inn, or Seymour Place, which stood on the ground now occupied by Surrey, Norfolk, and Arundel Streets, and was at one time the residence of Thomas Seymour, the Lord Protector's brother, Stow proceeds : — " Next beyond the which, on the street-side, was sometime a fair Cemetery, or Churchyard, and in the same a parish Church called of the Nativity of our Lady and the Innocents at the Strand ; and of some (by means of a Brotherhood kept there) called of St. Ursula at the Strand. In former times it was an highway leading from London to Westmin- ster, and so was called in a Deed. Roger, called the Amner, gave and confirmed to Roger de Mulent, or de Molend, who ^ John Stow was born in 1525, and would therefore be of full age at the time of the demolitions. He spent a great part of his long life in compiling his account of London, and the facts which he brought to light and marshalled in his monumental work have been supplemented but little by subsequent investigators. The first edition of his Survey was issued in 1598, and the account it gives of the site of Somerset House must be considered in the highest degree authentic. 3 34 SOMERSET HOUSE was also called Longespe, Bishop of Chester, in the year 1257, a parcel of Land and buildings, lying in the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand, without London towards Westminster, and the same to hold to the said Roger and his successors by the yearly rent of three shillings at Easter, for the purchase of which the said Bishop gave twenty marks of silver. On this land we presume Chester Inn was built, situate by St. Mary-le-Strand. For near adjoining to the said Church, betwixt it and the river Thames, was an Inn of Chancery, commonly called Chester's Inn, because it belonged to the Bishop of Chester. By others named of the situation Strand Inn. Then was there an house belonging to the Bishop of LlandafF ; for I find in record, the fourth of Edward the Second (13 10), that a vacant place lying near the Church of our Lady at Strand the said Bishop procured of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, for the enlarging of this house. " Then was the Bishop of Chester (commonly called of Lichfield and Coventry), his Inn, or London lodging. This house was first builded by Walter Langton, Bishop of Chester, Treasurer of England in the reign of Edward the First. And next adjoining to it was the Bishop of Worcester's Inn. All which, to wit, the Parish of St. Mary at Strand, Strand Inn, Strand Bridge with the lane under it, the Bishop of Chester's Inn, the Bishop of Worcester's Inn, with all the Tenements adjoining, were by com- mandment of Edward, Duke of Somerset, uncle paternal to Edward the Sixth, and Lord Protector, pulled down and made level ground in the year 1549. In place whereof he builded that large and goodly house, now called Somerset House." The house of the Bishop of Llandafi^, here omitted from the summary of the demolished property, is in- cluded in that given by Stow in his Annates^ so that the complete account of the buildings which occupied k...._-.- f^ o ^ 00 ^: as oj THE FOUNDATION 35 the site made ready by the Protector may be set down as follows : — (i.) The Church of St. Mary le Strand ; (ii.) the episcopal house of the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, known as Chester's Inn ; (iii.) the episcopal house of the Bishop of Worcester ; (iv.) the episcopal house of the Bishop of LlandafF; (v.) an inn of Chancery, indifferently named Strand Inn and Chester Inn ; (vi.) Strand bridge ; (vii.) a number of tenements. Exactly in what manner these buildings were distributed over the site it is now impossible to make sure. The earliest graphic representation of London, that of Antonie van den Wyngaerde ^ preserved in the Bodleian Library, has been assigned to the year 1543. It consists of a panoramic view of the districts lying to the north of the Thames between Westminster and the Tower, and depicts with charm and evident fidelity the London of Henry the Eighth. Examining the neighbourhood of the Strand we at once discover Durham House and Savoy Palace on the one hand, and Bath's Inn (or Arundel House), St. Clement Danes' Church, and the Temple on the other, and notice on the ground since appropriated for the site of Somerset ' Little is known of this artist, although no fewer than forty-eight of his drawings are preserved in the Bodleian Library, He was a native of Flanders, whence it is supposed, from the existence ot a rescript of Philip n. granting him permission to remove into Spain, that he may have entered that monarch's service and been dispatched to London when the project of Philip's marriage with Mary Tudor was first conceived. The drawing of London (a small part of which is here reproduced) is unfinished as regards Whitehall, Bridewell, and a few other buildings ; and the memoranda jotted here and there on the roofs of churches and other large spaces suggest that it was intended to colour it. A copy of this drawing, much altered and otherwise spoiled, was made and engraved by N. Whittock in 1849. 36 SOMERSET HOUSE House what is probably the Church of our Lady and the Innocents at the Strand pulled down by the Protector. The church appears to occupy the central part of the site midway between the roadway and the river, and to be surrounded, particularly on the south, by other edifices possessing architectural dignity. A part at least of the building next the water must have constituted the Inn of Chancery called indifferently Chester Inn or Strand Inn ; for according to Stow this Inn was " near adjoining to the church, betwixt it and the river Thames." "The Bishop of Chester, his Inn or London lodging," a dis- tinct edifice, stood in the high street, and Worcester Inn was " close adjoining to it." In recent years the authenticity of Wyngaerde's picture has been challenged by the appearance of another ^ based upon a comparison of the accurate survey of John Rocque (1746) with the earlier maps of Ogilvy (17th century), Hofnagle (1572), and Agas {circa 1560) ; but this picture exhibits a complete disregard of accurate detail and very little of the graphic beauty which so distinguishes the older drawing. Moreover, it is not difficult to reconcile the latter with Stow's written description, at least so far as concerns the locality of the Strand ; and the independent but corroborative testimony of men so well trained to record what they saw as Stow and Wyngaerde, cannot now be called in question. Comparing the site as it appeared in Henry VIII. 's time with that covered by the modern building, only one point can be fixed with any certainty. Traces of the vaults of old St. Mary le Strand Church have been discovered beneath ^ See William Newton's London of the Olden Time (1855). Newton's statement that the vaults of the old church of our Lady and the Innocents were still used in his day for purposes of interment can only have refer- ence to the vaults beneath the modern church of St. Mary le Strand. Certainly no interment has taken place in the older vaults since the erection of the present Somerset House in 1776-90. THE FOUNDATION 37 the north-east corner of the present quadrangle, and in modern ordnance maps the site of the church is shown in that position. In the sixteenth century the church was better known as that of our Lady and the Innocents at the Strand, or of St. Ursula at the Strand ; but long prior to that period, viz., in 1376, one William Wynningham held the title, Rector Ecclesi^e Sanctce Marine le Strand; and in 1 147 the rector was none other than Thomas Becket, afterwards St. Thomas of Canterbury. When the Protector ordered the destruction of the old church he undertook to erect a new one in its stead, and granted the parishioners temporary use of a chapel in the Savoy Palace. But untimely death deceived the expectation they reposed in Somerset, and it was not until the completion of the present church of St. Mary le Strand in 1723 that the temporary use of the chapel in the Savoy was discontinued. The Inn or London lodging of the Bishop of Chester in Stow's time evidently stood near the present gateway leading to King's College ; for he tells us that " in the High Street near unto the Strand sometime stood a cross of stone against the Bishop of Coventry or Chester his house, whereof I read that in the year 1294 and divers other times the Justices Itinerant sate without London at the stone cross over against the Bishop of Coventry's house, and sometime they sate in the Bishop's house which was hard by the Strand." Worcester's Inn was near by, probably on the south towards the church. Llandaff's Inn appears to have stood to the west of the church on a site contiguous to that of the Savoy Palace. " In Edward the Second's reign, Thomas Earl of Lancaster granted to the Bishop of LlandafF a place of ground near the church of St. Mary atte Strond containing four score feet in length and eight in breadth •pro manso suo ibidem elangand, i.e. J for the enlarging of his mansion house there." The " Inn of Chancery, commonly called Chester's Inn 38 SOMERSET HOUSE because it belonged to the Bishop of Chester, by others named of the situation Strand Inn," was attached to the Middle Temple. In the reign of Henry V., Hoccleve, the poet, was enrolled there as a student of the Law ; and, according to Spelman,i this Inn was the largest of the Inns of Chancery. Of Strand Bridge Stow writes : " Then had ye in the high street a fair bridge called Strand Bridge, and under it a lane which went down to the Strand, so (called) from being a banque of the river Thames." William Maitland is somewhat more precise : " A little to the east of the present Catherine Street and in the High Street was a handsome bridge denominated from its situation Strand Bridge, through which ran a small watercourse from the fields, which, gliding along a lane below, had its influx in the Thames near Somerset Stairs." ^ The bridge must have been situated some distance farther to the east than Maitland suggests. In an account of one of Elizabeth's progresses we read that she came *' through Fleet Street unto her place called Somerset Place beyond Strand Bridge^' which shows that the bridge carried the road over a watercourse running down to the river cityward of Somerset House, probably at the point now marked by Strand Lane. Our best view of the vicinity before its devastation in 1547 leaves only a blurred impression, and notwith- standing the diligence of antiquaries the configuration of London in the sixteenth century is unlikely to emerge from the mist which enshrouds it. Even Stow, whose elaborate care left no particle of evidence unconsidered, is not clear in describing the events of his own time : he did not know, precisely, what buildings his great contemporary, Somerset, had pulled down at the Strand. Nevertheless, his Survey is the basis and inspiration of a ^ Sir H. Spelman : Reliqueet/> {Nichols). UNDER THE TUDORS 63 entituled The Light of Britaine by the gift of Henry Lite of Litescarie, gentleman, the author thereof. Over the gate of the Temple Bar were placed the waites of the Citie. And at the same Bar the Lord Maior, and his brethren the Aldermen in scarlet received and welcomed her Majestie to her Citie and Chamber delivering to her hands the Scepter, which after certain speeches had, her Highnesse redelivered it to the Maior, and he again taking his horse, bare the same before her. The Companies of the Citie in their liveries stoode in their rayles of tymber covered with blue cloth, all of them saluting her Highnesse as she proceeded along to Paules church, where at the great West door, shee dismounting from her chariot-throne betweene the houres of twelve and one, was received by the Bishop of London, the Deane of Paul's and other of the Clergie, to the number of more than fiftie all in rich coapes, where her Highnesse on her knees made her heartie prayers unto God ; which prayers being finished shee was, under a rich canopie, brought through the long West isle to her travers in the quire, the clergy singing the Letanie ; which being ended she was brought to a closet of purpose made out of the North wall of the Church towards the pulpit crosse, where she heard a sermon made by Doctor Pierce, Bishop of Salisbury, and then returned through the Church to the Bishop's Palace where shee dined ; and returned in like manner as afore, but with great light of torches." There follows the full order of the procession as it went out in the morning and came back at night. It exhibits a striking similarity to the state processions of our own time, and excepting the lurid effects of the torchlight the spectators at Somerset House on November 24, 1588, might well have been witnesses of the coronation of Edward VII. While Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon, lay on his deathbed at Somerset House (1596), Elizabeth, conscience-stricken for her neglect of him, caused a patent for the Earldom 64 SOMERSET HOUSE of Wiltshire to be drawn out, robes to be made, and both to be laid upon his bed. But the sick man could not forget her former disregard, and when she came to his chamber he received her with bitter words : " Madam," he said, " seeing you counted me not worthy of this honour whilst I was living, I count myself unworthy of it now I am dying." The Queen evidently did not long resent the rebuke, for later in the same year she granted the office of keeper of the palace, vacant by Lord Hunsdon's death, to his widow: "fee of I2d. a day, and the garden there, fee 6d. a day." In view of the subsequent association of Somerset House with the cause of Roman Catholicism, it is interesting to note its connection, up to this point, with the first Protestant rulers of England — with the Lord Protector, by whose activity the movement towards reform was first firmly established, and with Elizabeth, under whom it was achieved. c3 ga ^ o 03 J) ^ ^ a? C-, ^ -*j 'lis f :§ Sg S :- 05 2 ^ |o r" ^ ^ fl" z 4- W I £ 5 "^^-^ a, t; S.2 r = MS f. f^ - o So t: -3 ^ 5 1^ mw o .s? z ^ o ^ 0^ O •X p5 -=4-, CHAPTER III SOMERSET HOUSE UNDER THE STUARTS (i) James I. WE come now to consider what is perhaps the most fertile and interesting period of our investigation. It is a period of structural change, wherein the genius of Inigo Jones impressed itself so strongly upon English architecture, and Somerset House, restored to the front rank of royal palaces, became the centre of English social life. Some months elapsed after the death of Queen Elizabeth (24th of March, 1603), before Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I. of England, took up her residence at Somerset House. Quite the most absorbing interest of Anne's life consisted in its pleasures. Of these the chief was her participation in the elegant pastimes which exercised so much of the intellect of her generation, and influenced the progress of English literature and art. If the nam€ of Queen Elizabeth be associated with the greatest period of the English drama, that of Anne — Ben Jonson's Oriana, or as he afterwards called her, Bel Anna — is as closely attached to history of the English masque and similar entertainments. Copious details of her patronage of these arts are to be found in Nichols's Progresses of James 1. ; at her command many of the masques of Jonson, 5 «6 66 SOMERSET HOUSE Heywood, Samuel Daniel, and Thomas Campion were performed at Court, and not infrequently Her Majesty figured in the cast.^ Indeed, as late as 1617 we find her dancing at Somerset House in Ben Jonson's " Masque of Christmas," with the newly made Earl of Buckingham and the Earl of Montgomery. The important plays were, however, usually performed at Whitehall, but the Queen had several companies of players, or servants, as they were afterwards called, and doubtless on occasions not sufficiently noteworthy to secure record, plays were presented privately at Somerset House. Anne, however, was not wholly taken up with the drama. She indulged the taste for building which she had already gratified in Scotland. In 16 17 we read of her building at Greenwich, after a plan of Inigo Jones, and she continually employed Jones in architectural changes at Somerset House. Light-hearted and extravagant as she undoubtedly was, the influence of her Court nevertheless stimulated the artistic life of England ; her patronage seems to have been readily extended to the production of all graceful things ; and it is possible that even while she plunged cheerfully into debt in order to gratify her taste for costly amuse- ments she was unconsciously fostering the special genius of the age. It is scarcely matter for wonder that Anne's devotion to convivial excitements should have had a counterpart in her coquetry with religion. The intricacies of doctrinal dis- cussion may have served a purpose other than that of mere distraction, but it was nevertheless not clear even to Anne herself whether her sympathy was with Rome or the Protestants. She attended the services of the Church of ^ Queen Anne appeared personally in Jonson's " Mask of Blackness " (1604), his "Mask of Beauty," and his "Mask of Queens " (1609), Daniel's " Thetys' Festival" (16 10) and the "Vision of the Twelve Goddesses." UNDER THE STUARTS 67 England with the King, but "never could be induced to partake of the Communion at the hands of a Protestant minister, and those who were admitted to her privacy in Somerset House knew well that as often as she thought she could escape observation she was in the habit of repairing to a garret for the purpose of hearing mass from the lips of a Catholic priest who was smuggled in for the purpose." Not- withstanding this we have proof that when her last hour came she made open confession of her Protestant beliefs. Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, and King, Bishop of London, attended at her deathbed ; when not only did she follow their prayers, but, in answer to the archbishop, declared that she " renounced the mediation of all saints and her own merits and relied only upon her Saviour." In some particulars Anne found Somerset House more agreeable than the other residences assigned to her. Green- wich Palace, Hampton Court, and Oatlands in Surrey were delightful enough as occasional resorts, but the peculiar requirements of her Court seem to have been best satisfied by the palace in the Strand. Although on good terms with the King she kept a separate establishment during a great part of her abode in England. The arrange- ment inevitably bred little jealousies in the breast of James, and over the vast sums she expended on her entertainments it is said that her relations with " the little man " sometimes reached the point of rupture. Anne's separate Court was seldom long absent from Somerset House. No doubt that palace had a great advantage in being situated so near the City, whence the poets, wits, and gallants of the time had ready access to it. Indeed, the immediate neighbourhood was described as " an unknown land whereon so many ships of song are stranded or lost to oblivion which is blacker than darkness itself." But if many stranded, some we know sailed gaily about the Court : Ben Jonson, John Donne, Thomas Dekker, Samuel Daniel, Thomas Campion, Michael 68 SOMERSET HOUSE Drayton, George Chapman, Thomas Heywood, and perhaps Shakespeare himself, were welcomed there. If nothing else be credited to Anne this at least must be said of her, that she did not misplace her patronage. How, soon after her arrival at Windsor, in July, 1603, she assumed control of Somerset House, cannot be made out, but as early as August 14, 1604, we find her granting under her own hand to John Gerrard, surgeon and herbarist to the King, the lease of a garden plot adjoining the Palace in consideration of " his singular and approved art, skill, and industry in planting, nursing, and fostering plants, herbs, flowers and fruit," and on condition of his supplying her with herbs, flowers, and fruit according to their seasons throughout the year. On the loth of October following, she gave to Sir Robert Cecil, Lord Cecil of Essingdon, the keepership of Somerset House in the Strand, with all orchards, walks, gardens, &c., reserving to John Gerrard, of London, the garden plot formerly leased to him, and to Bromfield, the piece of ground assigned for the erection of a tennis court. Gerrard surrendered his interest in the garden plot to Cecil in 1605 ; and in 1608 a warrant dormant was issued delivering _^50 per annum during the Queen's life for fees, and also the sums requisite for expenses of the gardens at Theobalds and Somerset House. During the year 1 609, the gardens were relaid by William Goodrowse, Sergeant- surgeon, who received ;^400 for the work, which had prob- ably been necessitated by extensive building operations carried out about this time. What had formerly been a productive plot under the skilled cultivation of John Gerrard became now a formal garden in the Italian style ; and Cecil, finding his interest in it had been rendered valueless, relinquished all control into the Queen's hands, 27th of June, 161 1. John Gerrard, here referred to, enjoyed much fame as a herbarist ; he was superintendent of Lord Burghley's gardens in the Strand and at Theobalds, and UNDER THE STUARTS 69 compiled a Herball, which was issued in 1597, and gained him lasting repute. The plot of ground leased to him is now occupied by the East Wing of Somerset House and King's College. It is described in the original grant as " adjoining on the east part to the mansion house called Somerset House or Strand House, abutting on the west upon the wall of the said house, and on the east upon the lane commonly called Strand Lane, on the south upon the bank or wall of the river of Thames, and on the north upon the back side of the house standing in the high street, called the Strand, containing by estimation two acres or thereabouts." A gate led out of this garden into Strand Lane, enabling Gerrard to conduct his business without disturbing the privacy of the Queen's palace. In August, 1605, King Christian of Denmark, Oueen Anne's brother, who, on 14th of July, 1603, had received the Order of the Garter at the hands of the Earl of Rutland, at Elsinore, sent Henricus Ramelius, his secretary, to England, " to be solemnlie enstalled in his right." Ramelius, attended only by thirty gentlemen, and twenty others of inferior nature, was, at King James's appointment and charge, lodged and dieted at Somerset House. Here the party was " served by the King's Gentlemen, Ushers, Yeomen of the Guard, and Gromes of the Chamber ; and their meate dressed by his Highnesse chiefe cookes," By his lavish entertainment of the Danish envoy, James studied to impress his royal brother-in-law, who, in 1606, visited England in person, and was also entertained at Somerset House. On the occasion of this visit the name of the palace seems to have been changed to Denmark House. Dr. Fuller states that this was done, at James's express command, in honour of the royal Dane ; indeed, he goes so far as to add that the name was confirmed by the King's Proclamation. But, on the other hand, Arthur Wilson, historian and chronicler of the period, who consistently 70 SOMERSET HOUSE refers to the building as " the Queen's palace in the Strand," says, under the year 1610, that Her Majesty "affected to call " her residence Denmark House in compliment to her brother, but that this appellation obtained chiefly by courtesy among her domestics and dependents. A newsletter of the 8th of March, 1617,^ however, states that the building was not renamed until the Shrove Tuesday of that year when King James was brilliantly entertained in the palace at the Queen's expense. Whichever of these versions is correct, whether James did or did not rename the palace by pro- clamation in honour of King Christian, he certainly went to very great lengths in the welcome he extended to that monarch ; for his expenses in connection with the event, together with those incurred in the subsequent reception at Hampton Court of the Prince de Vaudemont, son of the Duke of Lorraine, consumed nearly the whole of a subsidy of _^453,ooo, which had been granted by Parliament for the " necessary and urgent demands " of his household. King Christian's visit appears to have been particularly agreeable to James, who was always eager for an opportunity to display his wit and the magnificence of his Court. A contemporary chronicle narrates in great detail " the most Royall and Honourable Entertainment of the most famous and renowned King Christian the fourth. King of Denmarke, who with a fleet of gallant ships arrived on Thursday the 17th day of July, 1606, in Tylbury-hope, neere Gravesend. , . . With the Royal passage on Thursday the 31st of July through the City of London and the honourable ' John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton. At this time the news- letters were the main channel by which events became known. Originally they were written by professional newsvendors and sent by them to their employers weekly. In the early years of the seventeenth century little printed news-sheets made their appearance, and gradually the written form was superseded. The news was largely collected in the coffee-houses, and the letters are an accurate reflection of the times just as the newspapers are of to-day. UNDER THE STUARTS 71 Shewes there presented and the manner of their passing." The interval, which was spent at Greenwich Palace, at Theobalds, and again at Greenwich, is minutely described, and the record ends : " Heere-hence they proceeded to Temple Barre ; where his Majestie and his Brother King giving many thanks unto the Lord Mayor and Citizens for their great charge and paines, delivered the sword to the Lord Mayor, and rode on their way to Somerset House, where they reposed themselves that night, and to their gracious further pleasures. Thus finished this daye's work to God's glorie and their Highness' great delight ; which the Omnipotent Giver of all Grace, and Preserver of His, ever encrease and protect them and all their Royal Progenie, from all detestable practices in this world ; and in the last. Heaven be their inheritance. Amen, Amen." ^ The conduct of their Majesties on this occasion scarcely accords with the spirit of the petition. It is recorded elsewhere that the days they spent together were dis- tinguished by great intemperance on the part of both monarchs, and that Christian, moreover, was guilty of in- delicate behaviour to the ladies about the Court, especially to the wife of the High Admiral, the Countess of Notting- ham, who expressed her keen resentment of his conduct in a spirited letter to the Danish Ambassador. As we have seen, Anne's Court at Somerset House was not squeamish in its morals. In all probability the liberties taken by His Majesty of Denmark passed generally as acts of royal gallantry. Be this as it may. King Christian was so greatly pleased by his reception that, unsolicited and unexpected, he revisited the English Court in 1614, and led James to squander a sum of ^50,000, which he obtained from his subjects under the specious title of a benevolence. ^ Progresses oj James I. (Nichols). 72 SOMERSET HOUSE " The affection between the Queen and her brother the King of Denmark was very great ; and this second visit to England had no object but the pleasure of seeing her, and giving her a happy surprise. He arrived in Yarmouth roads July 19, 16 14, accompanied by his lord admiral and lord chancellor. He landed privately, travelled with post- horses to Ipswich, and on to Brentwood, where he slept without any one suspecting his royal rank. Thus incognito he arrived at an inn in Aldgate where he dined. Thence, hiring a hackney coach, he went to the Queen's Court at Somerset House, and had entered her presence chamber before any one of her household was aware of his arrival in England. His royal sister was not present at the moment : she was dining privately in the gallery. While the King of Denmark mixed unknown among the courtiers who were awaiting the Queen, Cardel, the dancer, looked in his face very earnestly, and then said to a French gentleman, one of Her Majesty's officers, that ' the stranger-gentleman close by was the greatest resemblance to the King of Denmark he ever saw in his life,' Then hastening to his royal mistress he told her that her brother was certainly in the palace ; but Anne treated the information with scorn. But while the matter was in discussion, the King of Denmark entered the gallery, and raising his hand as a signal of silence to the attendants, he approached his sister's chair. Anne was seated with her back to him ; and putting his arms around her, ere she was aware, he gave her a kiss ; whereby she learned the verity of that she had before treated as falsehood. The Queen in great joy took off the best jewel she wore that day, and gave it to the Frenchman whose tidings she had mistrusted. Next she despatched a post to King James who was absent on a distant progress, and then devoted her- self to her brother's entertainment. King James made such haste home from Nottinghamshire, that he was at Somerset House on the Sunday, where he was present with the Queen, UNDER THE STUARTS 73 the King of Denmark, and Prince Charles, at a sermon preached by Dr. King, Bishop of London." ^ This sudden appearance of the Royal Dane excited much curiosity among politicians, but it was purely a visit of friendship, and apparently the outcome of a whim. Hawking, hunting, bear-baiting, and tilting at the ring were the daily diversions of the royal party. Plays were acted every night, except Sunday night, when the King of Denmark, at his own expense, entertained the English Court in the gardens at Somerset House by a display of fireworks of his own devising. The King no doubt possessed a peculiar genius for pyrotechny, for the exhibition he pro- vided is described as the most beautiful ever seen in England. Throughout the visit, he easily maintained the reputation for carousing which he had established eight years before ; and James marked his approval of it by a liberal self-indulgence. On the I St of August the royal guest took leave of his sister, and James accompanied him to Woolwich. After inspecting the shipyard of Phineas Pett, a famous naval architect of the time, they proceeded to the " Ship Tavern," at Greenwich, where they dined. King Christian then boarded his ship, which had come round from Yarmouth, and sailed away for Denmark. Although during the entertainment of the Danish king, the festivities centring in Somerset House were of excep- tional magnificence, the Court there, without the tonic of a royal visit, was still a brilliant focus of gaiety. Between King Christian's first sojourn in London and the failure of the Queen's health came a sequence of social merry- makings broken only by the death of the Prince of Wales, and reaching here and there a theatrical climax in the reception of some man of mark. The courtyard echoed light-hearted laughter, the dance and the carousal ; the gardens, the sigh and the stolen kiss. Indeed, the Queen's ^ Newsletter : Mr. Lorkin to Sir T. Puckering. ^ 74 SOMERSET HOUSE household was a " continued Maskarado where she and her ladies, like so many sea nymphs or Nereides, appeared in various dresses to the ravishment of the beholders, the King himself being not a little delighted with such fluent elegancies as made the nights more glorious than the day. But the latitude that their high-flying fancies, and more speaking actions gave to the lower world to judge and censure even the greatest with reproaches, shall not provoke me so much as to stain the innocent paper. ... As she (the Queen) had her favourites in one place the King had his in another. She loved the elder brother, the Earl of Pembroke, he the younger whom he made Earl of Mont- gomery and Knight of the Garter." ^ One contemporary was delighted by " her (the Queen's) seemely hayre downe trailing on her princely-bearing shoulders," while another considered the draperies aff^ected by the ladies of the Court "too light and courtezan-like for such great ones." The Countess of Dorset tells how " the ladies about the court have gotten such ill names that it is grown a scandalous place, and the Queen herself much fallen from her former greatness and reputation she had in the world." The extravagance in details of attire resulted in great part from the Queen's passion for the masque. It was associated in her case with an enormous expenditure on jewelry and " physical and odoriferous parcels " from the East. No taste, however costly, was subject to restraint. Gaiety, magnificence, luxury : these were the features of the Court of Anne. Small wonder that the indulgent King of Denmark enjoyed himself so well ! During the entertainment of the Count Palatine by King James in the latter half of 1612 the Queen, always on the alert for opportunities of social excitement, asked the King to present his guest to her, and James, confident in Anne's ' Life and Reign of James I., by Arthur Wilson, Esq. Pkofo~\ National Portrait Gallery, To face pag-e 7i. Anne of Denmark. 'lEmery Walker. Paul van Somer. UNDER THE STUARTS 75 ability to do him credit on occasions of this kind, readily acquiesced. On the 21st of September the Count and his mistress spent " the whole day " at Somerset House. The impressions of the Count have not been recorded, but it may be surmised, in view of his tarrying " the whole day," that the Queen's hospitality reached its customary level. The death of Henry, Prince of Wales, at the age of eighteen, on the loth of November following, cast a cloud of gloom over the Court. As the Prince lay dying at St. James's Palace the King, " apprehending the worst, and not enduring to be so near the place, removed to Theobalds and kept his bed." On the 5th of November crowds thronged every avenue from the Palace to Somerset House. The people were commemorating the anniversary of Gunpowder Plot in grotesque and whimsical pageantry, and all night long as they stood in the streets their thoughts turned from the occasion of their merry-making to the Prince on his deathbed. Some wept and groaned as tidings of the increasing pangs were brought out from time to time and carried to the Queen, who, fearing infection, had withdrawn to her own apartments at Somerset House. Not long before the fatal announcement she had been told that the nostrum prescribed by Sir Walter Raleigh was effecting a wonderful cure. Accordingly the revulsion she experienced on hearing of the Prince's death was extreme. Rage mingled with the paroxysms of her grief and despair, and in her anguish she declared her son the victim of some murderous poisoner. For a full month she sat at Somerset House in a darkened room hung with black ; nor would she even in 16 14 attend a solemnity of which her second son, Charles, was to be the central figure, lest she should renew her grief in the memory of his more fondly-loved brother. By that time, however, she had so far recovered from her bereavement as to seize upon the occasion of the marriage 76 SOMERSET HOUSE of Robert Ker, Lord Roxborough, with Jane, daughter of Patrick Lord Drummond, for great display and rejoicing. The marriage took place on the 3rd of February, 16 14, at Somerset House, the King being present at the shows and devices which followed it. The important feature of these shows and devices was a masque which the Queen had com- missioned specially for the occasion. It was written by the poet Daniel, and entitled Hymen s Triumph : A pastorall Tragicomedies presented at the Queens Court in the Strand at her majestie's magnificent entertainment of the King's most excellent majestie being at the nuptials of the Lord Roxborough. Describing this occasion a contemporary newsletter observes, " This day se'nnight the Lord Rox- burgh married Mrs. Jane Drummond at Somerset House, or Queen's Court, as it must now be called. The King tarried there till Saturday after dinner. The entertainment was great, and cost the Queen, they say, ^3,000. The pastorall by Samuel Daniel was solemn and dull, but perhaps better to be read than represented." ^ It is doubtful whether the Queen took part in the perform- ance, but over the whole function hers was the presiding genius. From other sources we learn that the play as then presented was a somewhat indelicate entertainment, and for several years afterwards ribald jests to which it had given occasion were current in the higher circles of society. This may, however, be accounted a characteristic of the time rather than of the play. That the performance was of a kind to which the Queen was passionately addicted is not so much a criticism upon her tastes as upon the conventions which regulated her life. The day after the marriage " the Lord Mayor and all the Aldermen were invited, and had rich gloves. They went thither in pomp, and were graciously used ; and, besides their great cheer and many healths, had a play. They ^ John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, February 10, 16 14. UNDER THE STUARTS 77 presented the Bride with a fair cup and two hundred Jacobin pieces or double sovereigns in it."^ But the proceedings were not all distinguished by such good will, for " there fell out a brabble or quarrell 'twixt the Earl of Essex and young Hegden (son of Sir C. Hegden) with one hand ; which was to be decided presently, but that while the other went to fetch his sword the Earl was stayed upon the water by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Queen took this as an affront to her feast ; so there is a great fault laid on Hegden, who is committed to the Fleet ; and if he find not better friends may pay dear for it. The day was dismal to him and his house ; for in the morning there was a decree in Chancery that the Sherriff and Justices of Norfolk should raise the country and thrust his father out of the possession of all he hath." 2 Serious as the incident proved to the Hegden family, it did not disturb the even tenour of the Queen's plans. A fortnight later she feasted " all that gave presents to the Bride ; at least all the nobility, of which there was so great an assembly that the Lady Roxborough, the bride, was the lowest at the table. That night she likewise feasted all the gentlemen belonging to the Earls of Pembroke, Worcester, Southampton, and others, that had waited on the marriage, and gave them thanks and her hand to kiss ; for she would not be served by any of the King's servants." 3 Even a queen may not have weddings when she pleases ; but Anne was peculiarly favoured. A short time after the wedding just described she married another of her maids, a daughter of Lady Somerset, to Rodney, a man of good living in the West of England, and on the 25th of May, 161 5, Sir Robert Mansell was married at Denmark House to Mistress Roper, yet another of her maids, both occasions being dis- * John Chamberlain to Sir Dudley Carleton, February lo, 1614. ^ Ibid. 3 Ibid., February 17, 1614. 78 SOMERSET HOUSE tinguished by a renewal of the gay conviviality which had marked the nuptials of Lord and Lady Roxborough. In connection with the Shrovetide festivities of 1617 the King spent some days at Denmark House, where, on the 15th of March, he stood to view the procession to Windsor of two new Knights of the Garter, Lord Knollys and Viscount Fenton, with three hundred attendants each. Early in 161 8 the Queen's health began rapidly to fail. The dropsy which three years earlier had manifested itself, came on again with renewed virulence. " Her Majesty is not well. They say she languisheth, whether with melan- choly or sickness or what not ; yet she is still at Whitehall, being scant able to remove." Nevertheless she went over to Somerset House to escape the bustle of Shrovetide, that season being kept at James's Court with much enjoy- ment. In the midst of the revels at Whitehall James was attacked with gout in the knees, and became unmanageable by his attendants. Despite her own malady Anne made several journeys from Somerset House to comfort him. In the following December we read that " the Queen is better, and will spend Christmas at Denmark House," but soon afterwards she went to Hampton Court, and took to her bed. A newsletter tells that " the King has been to visit the Queen at Hampton Court ; danger is apprehended ; the courtiers already plot for the leases of her lands, the keeping of Somerset House, and the rest for implements and moveables as if they were to divide the spoil." ^ The illness did, indeed, terminate fatally. Anne died at Hampton Court on the 2nd of March, and a week later her body was carried at night by water to her favourite palace in the Strand, where it lay unburied till the 13 th of May. A newsletter of the 1 9th of April describes how " the Queen's funeral is like to be deferred for want of money to ' John Chamberlain to Sir D. Carleton, January 2, 1619. UNDER THE STUARTS 79 buy the blacks (for Sir Lionel Cranfield saith he will not take them upon credit) till the latter end of May. But whilst he is thus provident in forecasting the best way for the King's profit in buying the cloaths at best hand, some think he casts up ill account of that expense his majesty is like to be at all the interim in maintaining the Queen's Household which wants nothing of its full allowance till the Funeral be celebrated." ^ While the dead Queen lay at Somerset House the members of her household lived there in comfort, and spent their long leisure in settling her affairs among themselves. Nevertheless, before the funeral the ladies were weary of watching at the bier, although a greater concourse of them had assembled than ever during the Queen's life. The interment eventually took place in Henry VII. 's chapel at the Abbey on May 13, 16 19. The full order of the procession and ceremonial is given by Camden, but the following account is perhaps more graphic : — " It were to no purpose to make any long description of the Queen's funeral, which was but a drawling, tedious sight, more remarkable for number than for any other singularity, there being two hundred and eighty poor women besides an army of mean fellows that were servants to the Lords and others of the Train. And though the number of Lords and Ladies was very great, yet methought that altogether they made but a poor show, which perhaps was because they were apparelled all alike or that they came laggering all along even tired with the length of the way (Somerset House to Westminster) and weight of their cloaths, every lady having twelve yards of broad cloth about her, and the Countesses sixteen. The Countess of Arundel was chief mourner, being supported by the Duke of Lennox and the Marquis of Hamilton ; as likewise the rest had some to lean on, or else I see not how they had been able to hold out. The ' Mr. Lorkin to Sir T. Puckering, April 19, 1619. 80 SOMERSET HOUSE Prince came after the Archbishop of Canterbury who was to make the Sermon, and went before the corps that was drawn by Six horses. It was full six o'clock at night before all the solemnity was done at Church, where the herse is to continue till next term, the fairest and stateliest that I think was ever seen there." ^ The King was at Newmarket, too unwell to be present at the obsequies ; but he evidently had a speedy recovery, since four days afterwards he arrived at Greenwich, whither " all the Queen's coffers and cabinets were brought from Somerset House in four carts and delivered by inventory to his Majesty by Sir Edward Coke, the Queen's auditor." During the interval between the Queen's death and her burial at Westminster ^36,000 worth of her jewels had disappeared. Pierrot, her French attendant, and Anna, her Danish maid, were suspected of having abstracted them from the royal apartments at Somerset House, together with a vast sum of ready money which Anne was supposed to have hoarded ; but although these suspects were imprisoned, no trace of the missing valuables was discovered until 1621, when an accident disclosed them in a secret coffer, where the Queen herself had probably placed them. Allusion has been made to structural changes at Somerset House carried out by Inigo Jones under Anne's direction, but little evidence is forthcoming to show in what those changes consisted. According to a ground plan in the folio of drawings ascribed to John Thorpe, only the great quad- rangle existed in his day. The smaller quadrangle and the wing towards the east may, therefore, be regarded as belonging to the time of Anne. Strype says that " the Palace was greatly improved and beautified by this Queen, who added much to it in the way of new buildings, Inigo Jones being called in to furnish the designs. She also brought a supply of water to it by pipes ' John Chamberlain to Sir D. Carleton, May 14., 16 19. Fhoto^ In [GO JONKS. [Emeni lj;,lkei: From tlie jiictiirc in ilie KaHonal Portrin'f Gnllery, copied, lyrohahly bij Heiu-tj Stone, from the oi-i